Overwatch Regeneration
by OrangeFeels
Summary: After making a major scientific innovation, a vigilante is targeted by two of the worlds most powerful organizations: Overwatch and Talon.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It all started when the battery exploded in my face. I had done it. Years of working on a hunch and I had finally figured it out. Solid plasma. Hard light. Whatever you wanted to call it, I had created it. Sure, a ray of bright white light had punctured the car battery I was using to fuel my device, sure the battery acid stung. And boy did it scar. I had burn marks all over my face and body until she-

There I go, getting way ahead of myself. My name is Roland. They can't know I just divulged my real name online, for everyone to see. But let's keep that between us, okay? I grew up in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in a backwoods town somewhere in Colorado. My entire life my family had had a knack for everything outdoorsy. Camping, hunting, rock climbing. Heck, if you told me my little brother could identify every native species of bird in the midwest just by their chirping, I wouldn't question it. But me, I've always been one to stay indoors. I know, I know, shut-in. Anti-social. I've heard it all. But here's the thing, I can function perfectly fine around people. But if I had to choose, I'd want to stay by myself, in my room. So, I did. For years. You see, I wasn't as... Physically inclined as my family was. I was skinny, lanky. Never any good at PE in school. I remained that way all the way through college. I moved to Los Angeles. I got a job as a nurse at a hospital. A male nurse, and yes before you say anything, I got flack for it often. I didn't care, it paid well and I enjoyed the work.

Something I carried with me all the way from childhood, though, was my love for science. I was born in 2042, and as a result my father would always complain about how "lucky" I was to have the technology I did. Something that intrigued me specifically was holograms. Or, to be more precise, hard light. Picture it. You flick on a flashlight. The ray of light shoots out the end, and collides with the wall. Now imagine being able to grab a hold of the ray of light, and move it around like it was a cardboard tube you'd find inside a roll of wrapping paper. It was a few years before college that I came up with the idea of how hard light could be plausible.

I won't get into specifics because it'd take me the rest of the day to explain it, but imagine the liquid form of light being darkness, the solid version of light being ice, and gaseous version of light being what you see when you flick the light switch. I figured out how to "freeze" the photons in the gaseous light, successfully creating hard light. It had only taken me four years. I had a little help, but I'll get to that later.

I was born into a huge international crisis. My family was very one-sided when it came to the Omnics. They taught me that they were merely machines, created to do nothing more than work for humans. And I believed them. When I was eight, the fighting stopped. Omnics began settling into everyday life just like humans. I started seeing a few here and there around town. They looked almost human. Some of them looked damaged. Dented, scraped and broken in different places. It wasn't until I was ten when I interacted with an Omnic for the first time. I was at the convenience store and approached the counter. He stood behind the counter, white and blue paint shining under the yellow light of the store.

"Hello." he said. "Just this today?" he asked as he scanned my soda.

"Yes sir." I responded. I paid, and left the store. I left a different man. We had only exchanged a few words, but I could not see any difference between the robot behind the counter and any other person I saw walking down the street. From that day on, my view changed regarding the Omnics. They were people. Just like you and me.

Fast forward again to just after college. I was working my steady job at the hospital.

* * *

"Roland. Roland!"

I snapped out of it.

"Yeah? Sorry."

"Always daydreaming," the doctor said from across the operating table "Forceps please."

"Of course." I responded, and handed the tool to the doctor.

"What's going on today?" she asked.

"Just... I got a new cool gadget at home and I can't stop thinking about it. Got my head in the clouds."

"Well, just hand me some gauze and we can be done for today."

I handed her the roll of gauze and left the sterile blue room. I pulled off my face mask and my rubber gloves, clocked out, and caught a taxi back to my apartment. It had a lovely view of a grimy dimly lit back alley. Over the past few days, I had been shaping my home made hard-light into a small cane of sorts. Different forms of hard-light had already existed for a few years now, but I was proud of mine. Light, blue and simple. You could shine the light from any source, and the beam would end wherever I would program it to. Two inches? Two feet? Two yards? Sure. The small cane I was working on was for my neighbor, Orson. He was a veteran from the Omnic crisis, who had literally lost an arm and a leg. I figured it would be a nice gift for him as a thank you for all the cabinets he had fixed and roaches he had gotten rid of since I had moved in. The sun had set behind the skyscrapers of LA, and the streetlights illuminated. I opened the door to deliver the gift when my eye caught something in the alleyway. Two silhouettes were barely illuminated in the light casted by the street lamps. Someone was on the ground, being kicked repeatedly by an assailant. A mugging? An attempted murder? I didn't have time to question myself before I was climbing down my fire escape to street level.

"What's going on?" I yelled as my feet touched the old pavement.

"Oh, hey man, you want in on this?" the assailant asked. He wore a tattered hoodie and a beanie. He smelled of cigarettes and alcohol. His victim lay twitching and sparking at his feet. An Omnic.

"No... Why are you doing this?" I asked, trying to hide my outrage.

"It's just a robot. It doesn't have feelings you idiot." he responded.

"Stop." I said.

"What was that?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

"Stop. He hasn't done anything to you."

"He? _It_ is just a robot. You-"

The assailant turned his attention to me. He threw a punch my way, and it landed directly in my stomach. I reeled backwards and fell to the ground, my vision going spotty and red. The man turned his attention completely to me now. He have the Omnic one last kick to the head, before starting for me.

"This will teach you to side with a bunch of computers." he said. I got up onto my feet, my vision still blurry. I saw something glimmer in his left hand. A knife.

I almost ran until I remembered I had something to defend myself. I pulled the handle to the hard-light cane from my pocked, and pressed a small red button. The blue light shot out about two feet. Not long enough for a cane, I'd have to fix that later. I shook my head.

"Stay focused." I whispered to myself. He swung his knife at me and to my surprise, I stepped out of the way, swung my makeshift baton down and swept his legs. The man fell to the ground. He followed my example, and swung his knife and my legs. I moved out of the way barely to slow. He sliced one of my shins before I landed another blow to his head. He rose to his feet and swung again before our two weapons met. I mean, his weapon met my cane. I mean baton... Whatever.

I pulled the cane back and swung once more at his head. It hit, and the man immediately slumped to the ground. I wiped my brow. He was alive, but out cold. The adrenaline had me going a million miles a minute. I was halfway up my fire escape thinking "Boy, I wonder what I'll have for dinner tonight" before I remembered the Omnic. I arrived back at ground level, and rushed to him.

"Are you alright?" I asked, helping him up.

"Yes, thank you. I-I'm sorry for this t-t-trouble." he whimpered.

"We need to get you to a hospital." I said. His head was shooting sparks, and he was stuttering.

"I can't see. Wha-wha-wha-what's happening?"

"Sir, hang in there."

"You're n-not with t-them are you-you?" he asked me.

"With who?"

"O-Overwatch."

"Overwatch? That super squad? No, no Sir I am not."

"N-Not yet you a-aren't. If you were-weren't on their li-li-list before, you-you-you-you are now."

And with that, the light in his eyes went out, and he went limp.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Hey! We need help over he-"

"Get on the ground! Place your hands over your head!" the officer shouted.

"What?" I asked, before realizing what was happening. He thought I was the one behind this all. He thought I had killed the omnic. "No, Officer, you've got it all wrong-" I tried to say before he cut me off again.

"I won't ask again! Get on the ground!" he said, aiming his pistol at my head. I panicked. I had never been in trouble with the law before. So I complied. I placed my hands behind my head, and knelt to the ground. The officer rushed towards me, and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. I exhaled, and pressed the button on my hard-light baton. It flared to life. I rolled over, taking the officer with me before hitting the gun out of his hands, and smacking him over the head. Like the crook, he was out. I fished the key off of the man, unlocked my cuffs, and made my way back up the fire escape into my apartment. I shut the window behind me, and turned off the lights.

I had left the omnic down there, dead. I had assaulted an officer. I had knocked out a societal menace. Okay, the last one wasn't too bad. The cop hadn't gotten a good view of my face... At least... I don't think he did. I stashed the cane-turned-weapon in one of my clothes drawers and leaped into bed. The moment my head hit the pillow, I began dreaming.

* * *

I awoke in the morning with an aching abdomen from where the criminal had punched me the night before. I decided to call into work and told them that I wouldn't be coming in that day. After being chewed-out by my supervisor, I sat up in my bed, and walked to my dresser across the room. I opened my t-shirt drawer. There, on top of my many shirts, sat the hard-light cane.

I must have stared at that thing for hours.

I had helped that omnic. Or... I had tried to. I was too late. But I had helped him in a way. What he mentioned though. About me being on Overwatch's list. What'd he mean by that? Did they have a list? Was it a call list or a watch-list?

Ideas swirled in my head. I could make a difference with this technology at my side. My mind didn't immediately go to being a vigilante, but I was already one right? Nothing I could do to change that now. I had taken the law into my own hands, and incapacitated an officer while I was at it. Speaking of which, the fact that they hadn't knocked on my door yet was a good sign. But had he seen my face? I would need a mask. Something to cover my face so I wouldn't be easily identifiable. As I pulled an old blue scarf from a box of winter clothes, my mind began to race.

What was I doing? I was actually considering this? Why? What could I offer the world? But... The omnics. Ever since the Crisis they had been treated unfairly, attacked, and berated. Just like last night in the ally. And law enforcement carried prejudice the same way that menace had last night. Some... Most didn't fight for the rights of the omnics. If they saw one being beaten in an ally, they would turn the other cheek. I wasn't sure if the omnics were truly self-conscious. But last night had changed me. Convinced me there was something more. As I looked into that robots eyes as he faded away last night I saw raw emotion. Somehow. Fear, anger, sadness. But also peace. That was all it took.

I wrapped the scarf around my face, covering my mouth and nose, and threw a black hoodie on over the top of what I was wearing; simple jeans and a thermal shirt. I retrieved the baton I had used the night before and placed it into my pocket. This was happening. I didn't even know how to fight. I told myself I'd learn.

And with that, I opened my window, and climbed my fire escape to the roof of my building.

* * *

"You've seen the footage haven't you?"

"Yes I have, it's impressive. No combat experience in his life?"

"Says here he took karate for two months when he was twelve."

"Real combat experience."

"What? Karate not real enough for you?"

"..."

"A-hem. No."

The man rewound the holovid again. One armed man subduing a criminal and a police officer with little effort.

"How?"

"Not sure. We do know that the hard-light weapon he possesses is like nothing we've ever seen. The hard-light is its own. We think the way he can knock out people that easily would have to be some sort of force magnification device built into the weapon. Exponentially heightens the power of the blow when it connects with its victim."

"Sure about that?"

"It's a theory."

"What else do you have?"

"He's a nurse."

"A nurse?"

"Yeah, at a hospital in... Los Angeles."

"Why would a nurse take up a hobby like this? Designing hard-light weapons?"

"Not sure. Anyway, that's all I have for you. Once we get more on him we'll talk more. This is the first one to catch your eye in a long time."

"There's something different about this one. I can't explain it. Plus, if he's a nurse he could get us closer to our other potential agent."

"The one in Zurich?"

"That's the one."

"Let's focus on this one first."

"Understood."

"Dismissed."


End file.
